Saturday, July 19, 2014

MH17

Late night of 17th of July 2014, I was back in my room after the newly found karate session and a skype session with my mother. It was when I scrolled down my Facebook page that the feed reeled in news on MH17 being shot down. I thought I had misread the whole thing or someone was just posting a terrible joke. After checking from several sites on the Internet (which probably was not the most trusted methodology), it was confirmed that one of the Malaysia Airline passenger plane MH17 was indeed shot down from the airspace near the Ukraine-Russian border.

It was a truly sad news since it meant no survivors and many more problems to come. I was deeply saddened by the usual fact that in the event of conflict, the innocents were most of the time dragged into the whole whirlpool. It also highlighted to the public the importance of common people like us, to understand what is going on in the world. We were usually living within our own comfort zone, our safety place, and we should be grateful for that. But that doesn't mean everywhere else, everyone else is having the luxury of sleeping in peace, having a full stomach to sleep with, a roof above them.

This event also brought me ultimate frustration. Why? This is not a post trying to put a blame on which side or party, but in the end, the whole thing stems down to our very nature of human. Us, warmonger. We fought our way through history, competing each other out of the space, often with a price - sometimes using some things that did not belong to us. Ukraine-Russia is not the only border having tension in the world. We could make a documentary programme out of each every of them. And it is ridiculous. We are living in an era where we could call across the globe within a press of a button, flying across nations as how viruses could spread, sending spacecrafts into space - and we would thought why we need barriers when we have the technology not to.

At the same time, I know I should not feel angry or a feel of retribution. As much as such tragedy create an uprise of yelling people around the world, I personally do not think revenge or retribution would be a great idea. There was almost no perfect way to solve a problem with punishment. That would lead to more casualty and victims, and again, mostly including those who are innocent. Important lesson, however, lies in us, being more aware and mindful over these things that are happening all over the world.

Here I would like to share a quote from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. Even though it was an excerpt out of a fiction book, it did say a lot about our world.

On top of that, just yesterday morning, I received news about my ex-roomate lost two sisters and a nephew on that same plane. On a personal point of view, this might be a great impact on her and her family. My deepest thought and prayers to her. I do hope they stay strong throughout this trying time. It was also disheartening to see so many talented and wonderful people perished in this event, especially those amazingly devoted AIDS researchers. This is truly a loss to the world.